Corrie Strommen 9/9/22 Corrie Strommen 9/9/22

A Taste of the Night Market: Elsa Salazar Punyawai of Southeast Asian Taste

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of local entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with a couple of wonderful vendors from The Night Market and are excited to share their stories!

The Night Market, now in its second year, provides an opportunity for local vendors to sell a wide variety of art, clothing, jewelry, plants, and most importantly, amazing street food. The three events in 2021 featured more than thirty unique vendors at each event as well as performances by dancers and musicians. Each event had over 6,000 attendees.

Now in its second year, The Night Market has taken place over the course of four smaller events and is to conclude with its largest event yet on September 10th with a remarkable 60 vendor market on the Mayo Civic Plaza. From its start, The Night Market has given priority to BIPOC vendors and the mission of the project is to “highlight local BIPOC businesses and bring a slice of culture to Rochester, Minnesota.” The Night Market is organized by Tiffany Alexandria.

Elsa Salazar Punyawai attended the first Night Market events in 2021. Missing her home country, the Philippines, she was comforted by the various cultures represented at the markets and was inspired to be involved the following year.

She, her husband, and some friends, all representing different countries and cuisines (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and the Philippines), came together to form their booth, Southeast Asian Taste.

“Food has a way of making a place feel like home. Going to The Night Market last year helped me feel less homesick and I wanted to help create that same experience for others. I love sharing my culture through food.” Elsa explained.

The group serves a variety of street foods at their booth such as meatballs with homemade sauces, hot dogs on a stick with sweet banana ketchup, halo halo, papaya salad, and a sticky rice dessert with caramelized saba (a banana variety native to the Philippines).

Pictured: Halo-halo (a popular cold dessert in the Philippines). Photo by Tiffany Alexandria.

Though the group has several delicious food options to offer, Elsa admitted that she feels limited in what they can serve due to complicated licensing regulations and expensive insurance that kept them from cooking certain items at their booth.

“As first time vendors, it can be difficult to get started. Between licensing, equipment, and supply expenses we sometimes don’t see much profit at the end of the day. I wish we could serve more traditional foods, but we had to get creative with our options.”

Regardless of some of the frustrations involved in being a vendor, Elsa loves the connections she has made with others through The Night Market.

“All of the vendors at the market create such a wonderful community. We all exchange food, drinks, and stories. There’s an amazing culture of sharing at The Night Market. It feels like home.” Elsa said.

She continued, “Tiffany is also very supportive and has offered to help us with so many different things.”

Though Elsa serves at The Night Market with friends, she also cooks independently through her cottage food business, Elsa’s Filipino Delicacies. By following her Facebook page you can check out weekly offerings and order food for pick-up or delivery!

In a recent post Elsa said, “I am not a businesswoman type, and also not even a chef. By ordering my products, I want to let you know that you are helping me in many ways. Cooking Filipino food relieves my homesickness, it builds my confidence, it makes my mom happy, and it totally feeds my soul.”

Elsa is a social worker for the elderly and is currently a student working toward her master’s degree in social work. In her free time she loves spending time with her husband and their three dogs. She loves food and is always eager to support local restaurants.

For more information about Elsa’s Filipino Delicacies, follow her page on Facebook!

Elsa's Filipino Delicacies

Collider is a proud sponsor of The Night Market! Don’t miss the final market on Saturday, September 10th from 4pm-10pm at the Mayo Civic Plaza.

For more information on location, vendors, merchandise, and community impact, click the link below!

The Night Market

Corrie Strommen 9/7/22 Corrie Strommen 9/7/22

A Taste of The Night Market: Dao See of Minne Street Roll

Dao See learned about the Night Market when she came across an ad while scrolling through Facebook last year. Already a passionate home cook and excited at the prospect of sharing her food with others, she applied to participate as a first time vendor in the inaugural launch of the event.

Dao is of the Lahu people, a hill tribe of Thailand, and though she has lived in Rochester for over twenty-five years, she has always been passionate about sharing her culture and food with those around her.

“I was already cooking traditional food from my culture for my family and friends. I love that people can come together around food and learn about new cultures through it.” Dao explained.

Organizer Tiffany Alexandria, quickly responded to Dao’s application and was excited to have her participate in The Night Market.

Dao has now had two successful years with The Night Market and sells egg rolls, chicken wings, turkey legs, and a spicy pepper dip through her booth, Minne Street Roll.

“People are in love with my eggrolls! Once people taste them they won’t ever want to get them anywhere else.” Dao said, laughing.

Dao explained that, in her culture, using bright, fresh ingredients and cooking from scratch are the keys to making delicious food.

Though her food has been extremely popular at the markets, getting started was not without its challenges for Dao.

“There is always some risk involved in starting something new.” Dao said.

Some of her greatest challenges were getting licensing for her booth and purchasing a generator when the market changed locations and did not provide on-site electricity.

Despite these challenges, Dao is happy to be involved and sharing her food and culture with the Rochester community. She has loved meeting new people and making connections with other vendors through the market. She is also excited about the positive exposure her food has received and she hopes to find opportunities in the future to share her food with more people.

Dao is grateful for the support of friends and family who pushed her to share her love of food with others.

“I love my hobbies, but my friends have to remind me that I shouldn’t do them for free.” Dao explained, as she is also a talented florist and event planner, alongside managing two hospitals as her full time job. “I wouldn’t be where I am today, doing what I’m doing without my friends.”

She concluded, “It is very important to me to care for the people around me and I love using my food and heritage to make connections and bring people together.”

Collider is a proud sponsor of The Night Market! Don’t miss the final market on Saturday, September 10th from 4pm-10pm at the Mayo Civic Plaza.

For more information on location, vendors, merchandise, and community impact, click the link below!

The Night Market

Corrie Strommen 8/31/22 Corrie Strommen 8/31/22

Coffee, Community, and Connection at Café Aquí with Shawn and Michelle Fagan

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with longtime Rochester small business owners, Shawn and Michelle Fagan, about their most recent venture, Café Aquí!

Photo contributed by Shawn and Michelle Fagan

Husband and wife team, Shawn and Michelle Fagan, recently added to their list of Rochester small businesses by opening coffee and empanada shop, Café Aquí, within Sargent’s on 2nd.

The two met in college at South Dakota State University, Michelle a Rochester native and Shawn from Rapid City. Upon graduation, they married and began working in photojournalism, traveling from city to city, exploring, and taking various jobs along the way.

“We knew pretty early on that we wanted to open our own photography studio someday, but wanted to take some time to move around and find the right community.” Shawn explained.

He continued, “When we became pregnant with our first son, we decided that the time was right to settle into a community and start our photography business. Having a baby to consider shifted a lot of location priorities and we decided to live closer to family. We didn’t feel that the business climate was quite right in Rapid City, but Rochester seemed like the perfect community for our business and it allowed us to be close to Michelle’s family.”

In 2002 they moved to Rochester and shortly after opened their downtown based photography business, Fagan Studios. Already lovers of photography, they soon fell in love with business ownership as well and later expanded to open an event space, Studio 324.

“We really have a passion for serving people, whether that be through our photography studio, event space, and now Café Aquí.”

Though they didn’t take the idea seriously until 2020, Michelle and Shawn had a “bucket list dream” of opening a coffee shop or restaurant. With a laugh they shared that their friends say that the best latte in town can be found in Michelle’s kitchen, made with their at home espresso machine. Michelle’s passion for excellent coffee, paired with Shawn’s love of cooking and baking, made a food industry business seem like a natural fit, at some point in the future anyway.

As the pandemic set in and brought with it long periods of quarantine and time at home, the two had more time on their hands. Shawn spent a lot of time baking and fine tuning his homemade scones, the recipe which would later be used in their cafe.

Avid soccer fans between themselves and their two sons, Shawn and Michelle have had opportunities to make friends through their sons’ teams as well as the intramural adult league that Shawn helps lead for the community. They became close friends with Nick Sargent, who runs the local greenhouse and landscaping business, Sargent’s, alongside his father.

“Nick is one of our best friends and our boys play soccer together. We still wanted to get together while soccer was canceled and at one point were spending a day on his boat. The conversation rolled around to a market he had seen in Canada and his idea to do something similar in their 2nd Street store. We thought the concept was really cool and loved the idea of a coffee shop within a garden center so we encouraged him to look into doing it. We also told him to keep us in mind if he decided to move forward with it because we had all these ideas and had visited so many cool coffee shops. We thought we could give him some good advice on making a great space.” Michelle explained.

Shawn continued, “The idea grew with all that extra time to think and we started asking ourselves, ‘What about Michelle’s lattes? How about my scones?’ Pretty soon Nick just asked us if we wanted to open up the coffee shop in their space. It started looking like the perfect opportunity to tackle that bucket list idea we had to open a coffee shop or restaurant.”

Shawn and Michelle got to work, designing the space and considering the menu and theming for the shop. From several trips and relationships, the two of them held a love for South and Central America. Michelle minored in Spanish in college and the two of them have friendships through travel and soccer with folks from areas such as Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico.

“That area of the world has held a special place in our hearts for a long time. There’s something about the warmth of the people and communities of the cultures we have had the opportunity to experience that were very in sync with our core values as business owners as well as the atmosphere we wanted to create here. We really wanted to create a culture of connectedness and community.”

They settled on the name Café Aquí, “aquí” in Spanish meaning “here.”

“We both feel that ‘here’ refers to more than just a place where you are. To us, the name speaks to being present, living in the moment, and feeling connected to where you are.”

Though Shawn and Michelle by this time were experienced business owners, opening a food based business was a whole new learning experience for both of them as they grappled with unfamiliar rules, regulations, and licensing hoops to jump through.

They were particularly frustrated when they learned that because of a state regulation they could not purchase empanadas from another local retail vendor and friend as they had planned. They had become so excited about the idea and leaning into the Central and South America theme of the space and menu, that they decided to keep looking for other options. On a chance trip to the Twin Cities, they came across a wholesale vendor that could provide them with the baked goods they wanted to serve. They were very excited to partner with the Minneapolis based vendor, who exclusively uses her Argentinian mother’s recipes for her empanadas.

“Even with all of the issues we faced figuring out how to serve empanadas in Café Aquí, we still ended up with authentic recipes with a great family story behind them. We love having that personal connection. It wasn’t our first choice, but it was a really phenomenal second choice.”

Though there were bumps along the way, the two of them leaned on their experience, as well as the support of other business owners.

“We’re really grateful that so many local businesses and peers allowed us to rely on their knowledge and experience. I think every local coffee shop in town offered to help us and gave us really good advice.”

Now several months into business, the coffee shop has become a welcoming haven for people looking for a place to work, connect with a friend, or just enjoy some wonderful coffee, baked goods, sunshine, and plant life. They have also recently started booking live musicians to fill the space with music. They’re looking forward to expanding their seating throughout more of the greenhouse space in the winter months to accommodate more people and share the warmth and plant life with all who come in for coffee, even in the coldest months of the year.

They find their work as Café Aquí to be rewarded most through the people they meet and the connections they’ve made through the shop.

“We don’t just serve coffee here. We serve people. We can serve people excellent coffee, ice cream, and baked goods in a beautiful environment but we never want the focus to shift from the people who come in and connecting with them.”

As a word of advice to those considering starting a business, Shawn and Michelle recommend asking business owners in the industry you want to enter for advice. “Put yourself out there and take the risk of asking for help or advice. The worst thing that can happen is that someone will say no, but more likely they will say yes. Looking back, we asked for quite a lot of help, but we certainly could have and should have asked for more and made things much easier for ourselves.”

“We’re risk takers, calculated risk takers, but risk takers all the same. I would encourage people that have a dream to not push it aside forever. See if it’s realistic and chase after it.”

Thank you for taking the time to read Shawn and Michelle’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also find out more about Café Aquí by clicking the link below!

Café Aquí

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 8/24/22 Corrie Strommen 8/24/22

Recycling and Refurbishing in the Rochester Community with Alisha Arguello

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Alisha Arguello who purchased Refashion, a longtime Rochester consignment business, with her husband in 2020.

For Alisha Arguello, co-owner of Refashion, recycling and refurbishing has been part of her life since she was little.

“I watched my mom refinish furniture while I was growing up and I would always be in awe of the ‘after.’ I thought it was so cool that she was able to revive something ugly or broken. I’ve been hooked ever since!”

Alisha went to college at Winona State University and received a degree in communications.

“In college, I did a lot of refinishing of furniture, repurposing old doors and pallets. I remember there being a pallet furniture craze at that time and I paid for a lot of schooling and traveling that way.”

Alisha’s first job after college was as a constituent advocate for the House of Representatives. She then went on to work at Mayo Clinic as an administrative assistant. She had started blogging and utilizing social media on the side which brought her to Lafayette, Indiana, where she did marketing and social media for a property management company for a time.

She moved back to Rochester for health reasons after her son was born and went back to work at the clinic. She also continued blogging, free-lancing in social media, and re-purposing.

“I couldn’t stay away from estate sales, garage sales, or thrift stores. The joke with my colleagues was I had ‘therapy’ so I needed to take an hour lunch break just so I could go downtown from Saint Marys to the Refashion on Broadway (the consignment business has now been open in Rochester for twenty-six years, previously under the ownership of sister duo, Cindy Hughs and Kristie Moore. ). I often came back with a new handbag from ‘therapy.’ I just love treasure hunting and retail therapy!”

Driven by the life lessons learned from her hardworking parents, who ran a small dairy farm and always focused on having multiple income streams due to uncertain weather conditions, crops, and markets, Alisha was dedicated to always having more than one source of income.

“Even while I was working at the clinic, I was waiting tables and re-selling on the side.”

When Alisha moved back to the Rochester area she met her husband, Rob Arguello, and they shared a passion for re-selling items together.

“At the time when we met, his focus was on sports memorabilia. I had to get over his love for the Giants!” Alisha said, laughing.

“But I loved that he also had a passion for treasure hunting and ‘flipping’ items. We talked and dreamed about what our business plan would be for a couple of years. It was fun dream to share together. We just weren’t sure when it would come about or what it would look like exactly. When the pandemic hit and Refashion was up for sale, Rob said that we should follow our dream and buy it! I remember feeling happy and excited, but also very apprehensive, wondering whether or not it would work and if it would be too much for our relatively young relationship.”

Alisha and Rob took the plunge and went all in to purchase Refashion in June of 2020, and three months later were married at their Northgate store location!

Clothing sales slowed down drastically during the pandemic, so after taking over the store they focused on selling pre-owned furniture and decor to as well as live sales by Alisha.

“My live sales in the beginning were absolutely terrible. I was awkward and nervous but I pushed through and it eventually became fun and something I looked forward to. Items sold and we found our customer base!”

She continued, “We had to make a lot of changes to survive as a non-essential business during the pandemic. We increased our social media presence, added online sales to our website, moved to a new location which gets more traffic and has a larger showroom, focused on bringing in high quality goods and luxury items, and started offering local pick up, delivery, and nationwide shipping.”

Alisha is passionate about recycling as well as witnessing the full circle of Refashion’s business plan.

“People bring us their items and get paid after it sells. They can cash out at any time or use their consignor money as store credit and get a discount. A consignor recently let her account build up and used her money in-store to purchase a beautiful Dolce & Gabbana dress and a Gucci belt! She couldn’t remember what she had brought in and sold, but she will definitely remember the feeling of walking out with two beautiful items and not having to pay a cent!”

She loves seeing furniture and clothing getting a second life with new owners. She also takes on clientele looking to downsize and enjoys helping people who may be overwhelmed by their belongings. She offers in-home consultations, value estimates, as well as furniture pick-up and delivery.

“I am honored when I’m asked to help families go through their belongings when a loved one passes. We laugh, cry, and share memories. I make sure that they feel good about where their loved ones belongings are going. Sometimes I feel like I clean out more than closets, since there are always emotions connected to our things. I am sensitive toward those emotions and try my best to help with in a compassionate way.”

As a word of advice to others considering starting a business, Alisha said, “Don’t be afraid to try something new and don’t be afraid to ask for help and advice from people who are already doing what you want to do. People will usually be willing to sit down for a coffee and let you pick their brain!”

She concluded, “I love being in this business because you see so many people come in with their stuff, totally unsure whether it’s worth anything or if anyone will buy it, and then seeing people come in and loving that couch or handbag that’s new and special to them. It’s really rewarding to see recycling in action and having this partnership with my husband. I feel so blessed!”

Thank you for taking the time to read Alisha’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also find out more about ReFashion by clicking the link below!

ReFashion

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Corrie Strommen 8/17/22 Corrie Strommen 8/17/22

Making Connections and Building Client Confidence in the Beauty Industry with Amy Chavez

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Amy Chavez, who runs her own local waxing studio!

Amy Chavez, owner of Wax Lab MN, remembers always being “that friend in high school who would always offer to do friends’ brows and make-up” and yet, she always considered working in the beauty industry more of a back-up plan.

Amy moved to Rochester with her mother at the age of ten and has lived here ever since. After completing high school she took a gap year while deciding what she wanted to go to school for next. She started working in food service, but soon took a job at a local salon. She was inspired by her boss’ passion for the industry and high recommendations for cosmetology school.

“My boss was a cosmetologist and talked about the industry and how much she liked it quite a lot. I also really enjoyed working in the salon and with all the women there. It was a really fun, positive work environment.”

Amy took her boss’ advice and went to beauty school, graduating from Nova Academy in 2015. She was attracted to their program because of their focus on skincare, but also received an education on hair and nail care.

Upon graduating, Amy wanted to get into skincare “but there weren’t many opportunities to get a job in town doing just that.” she explained.

Over the next few years, Amy took various positions, working at an office for a time, doing hair at local salons, and eventually took a job at the European Wax Center, where she realized that waxing was the beauty industry avenue she most enjoyed.

“I really enjoy meeting new people, having conversations, and building relationships with clients. I love that waxing really helps people feel better about themselves and more confident in their skin.”

Amy was still working at the European Wax Center in 2020. When the pandemic hit, they were one of many beauty industry businesses that were unable to be open for a time. While Amy was unable to work, she began considering next steps for herself and her life.

“During the Covid shutdown, while I was home and not working, I had a lot of time to think about what I was doing with my life and what I wanted it to look like moving forward. I knew that I really wanted to continue waxing, but also knew that I wanted to make a change. I started considering opening my own salon suite and at that time decided that I wanted to open my own business.”

She continued, “I felt like it was time to do my own thing and I was really passionate about creating an environment where I was really happy working and where my clients would also be happy and comfortable.”

Amy spent the next year preparing for the transition and looking for a space in which to open her salon suite. The opportunity arose for her to lease a suite within Studio 65 with a former coworker, who was also looking to start her own waxing business. They leased the space together, each opening their own waxing businesses. Amy opened under the name Wax Lab MN.

After acquiring a space, the last hurdle standing in the way of opening was acquiring licensing to wax in the space. “The state has a lot of rules and regulations, so it was a challenge emailing back and forth, answering lots of questions, and eventually getting the license.”

After eight years in the beauty industry, Amy has an established following of clientele that have happily followed her to her new business. Amy offers a variety of body waxing services and has built her clientele base around the services she is most passionate about.

Amy is already looking toward the future and hopes to move into her own storefront in coming years.

Outside of running her business, Amy enjoys time spent with her fiancé, friends, and dogs, thrifting, traveling, and being creative.

Thinking back, Amy said “In the past I think I really wanted to do my own thing and start a business, but was always worried about how things would work out financially. But really, you can achieve anything that you put your heart and mind to. You have the ability to cultivate the life that you want for yourself. So if you have an idea, just go for it!.”

Corrie Strommen 8/3/22 Corrie Strommen 8/3/22

Creating a Culture of Care and Support at Adapta with Executive Director, Kasi Haglund

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of entrepreneurs and small business owners in our community! We recently had the opportunity to chat with Kasi Haglund, executive director of a local nonprofit, who shared her experience of taking on a leadership role and creating meaningful change for the organization, staff, and residents.

Kasi Haglund, Executive Director of Adapta, an assisted living program designed to help individuals with brain injuries, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders, was on the verge of closure when she applied for the position in 2015.

Previously having worked in foster care (where she gained experience in business growth and development), school social work, medical social work, and as a mental health practitioner, Kasi was attracted to Adapta and the ways that it could bring all of her work experience together in a more cohesive role. However, it was clear that taking over that position would be fraught with challenges.

“I had done a lot of trauma work with youth in foster care and I enjoyed the medical social work aspect of the position. Knowing that it was a combination of trauma work, brain injury and mental health focus, as well as business growth and marketing really drew me in.” Kasi explained.

She continued, “When I started my interview, they said, “By the way, we may be closing.” which was very much true due to licensing changes in the state. So when I was hired I immediately had to figure out how to save the program and also work toward making a big culture change within the agency.”

Kasi was the first person with social work experience to enter a leadership role for the organization, and, with that experience, was focused on bringing more person centeredness into the program, as well as saving it.

Kasi worked with the state to grant Adapta licensure. Their program model at the time did not fit under the umbrella of changed licenses but Kasi worked hard to make sure that they could keep their doors open and the state “grandfathered in” their program. Since then, Kasi and her team have grown from twelve employees up to fifty and have expanded the program to include four different programs in four different buildings, now able to assist up to thirty-five individuals at once.

For residents at Adapta, the focus is on providing them a safe, stable environment where they have the opportunity to make positive changes in their lives.

“When people get here, the first thing they need is housing. As you can imagine, it’s really difficult to make a positive change in your mental or chemical health when you’re unhoused, living out of your car, or couchsurfing. So the first thing we focus on is getting residents a comfortable place to sleep. From there we look at food, medication, therapy, and transportation.”

Adapta spaces range from two regular houses, a group home, and individual apartments. The group home operates not unlike a college dorm, with semi shared spaces and private bedrooms. Residents share a kitchen, bathrooms and a living room. “It’s always exciting watching a new resident coming into the space and meeting everyone. It’s very much like freshmen entering a dorm. It’s like having your own little family setting. Somehow everything, meshes” Kasi said.

Adapta works hard to get their residents out into the community for activities and events.

“We’re constantly running around, driving to various activities. I’d say our greatest need in the program is a fifteen passenger van.” Kasi explained.

While Adapta does not have a designated length of time for residents to stay in the program, they do their best to set residents up for success outside of Adapta, no matter how long they end up staying.

“Some people are here for fifteen days, others for fifteen years, and it’s hard to track how people do after they leave us. But we do our best to set them up with the tools they need to move forward whether that be with a job, an apartment, or a car.”

Kasi finds her work at Adapta to be rewarding for several reasons.

“I really think Adapta has become the place where myself or one of our staff would want to be if we needed a place to stay. It’s an agency where we all feel safe and supported, and that’s the atmosphere we want for our residents.”

She loves the family aspect of the Adapta resident and staff community and the culture of care and support that has been cultivated there.

As a very “people driven” individual, she also appreciates the networking aspects of her work and the community connections she has been able to make through the program.

She also loves watching her staff grow and flourish through their roles. “When we learn to take care of others, it also benefits our own personal relationships. It makes us better partners, parents, and friends. So I love watching people grow through their positions here.”

Kasi and Adapta staff during staff development training.

Kasi is a mother of three and spends much of her time outside of work with her children, getting outside, going to their games and activities, and boating in her hometown of Lake City. She also enjoys spending time with friends, enjoying local live music, and horseback riding.

As a word of advice to anyone considering taking over the leadership of an organization, Kasi said, “Ask questions! There will always be people that know more about some things than you and you don’t need to be the expert on everything.”

She continued, “Make sure that it is something you’re truly passionate about. At a certain point you won’t be able to fake it, and when you care about something, it makes those late nights and frustrating moments totally worth it.”

Thank you for taking the time to read Kasi’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Adapta, their work in the community, and how to support them by clicking the link below!

Adapta

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A special thank you to our storytelling sponsor, Fredrikson & Byron, for their support! Their Midwest-based law firm is known as the firm “where law and business meet.” Their attorneys provide practical legal advice and advocacy that help people achieve their business goals. Just as Collider amplifies the voices or Rochester’s business community, Fredrikson & Byron helps new and growing businesses with a full range of services, combining a common-sense approach with decades of experience. to get things done for clients.

Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider

Corrie Strommen 7/20/22 Corrie Strommen 7/20/22

“A Fusion of Art and Science” A Passion for Roasting Quality Coffee with Trail Creek Coffee Roasters

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Jim and Crystal Whitmarsh, who turned a college dream into a reality through their business, Trail Creek Coffee Roasters.

Michigan natives, Jim and Crystal Whitmarsh, met in college while he pursued degrees in mechanical engineering and business, and she in exercise science and physical therapy. Over many college hours spent lingering in coffee shops, their relationship developed, as did a blue sky idea to own a coffee shop someday.

“We were set up on a blind date and ended up going to a local coffee shop. We spent a lot of our dating time there and started to dream about opening up a shop of our own one day. But we never thought it would include roasting and didn’t think it would happen till we were retired and beyond our professional careers.” Crystal said.

Jim and Crystal married and his first job out of college brought them to Minnesota, originally to the Mankato area, where they settled down and started a family, now consisting of two boys. Jim was working as a production and shipping supervisor, moving his way up in that company for the next decade, while Crystal worked in a hospital in Mankato.

In 2014, the same year their first son was born, Jim started experimenting with roasting coffee with a popcorn popper. He would roast once a week and just enough for them to use at home, but he was hooked on the process and in February of 2017 they purchased a small commercial roaster and pursued a cottage food license to begin selling coffee as Trail Creek Coffee Roasters. In that same year, they moved to Kasson, Minnesota, which was prompted by Crystal’s job transition from Mankato to St. Mary’s in Rochester, predominantly working with patients recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries.

Shortly after they purchased the roaster and moved Kasson, they started selling their coffee at nearby farmers markets and community events.

“We popped around to all the events that we could to start getting our name out there, and our customer base started to grow.”

Before long, their side hustle hobby began turning into its own full time job and Jim and Crystal started weighing their options as they were both still working their other jobs full time as well.

“Jim would wake up at four in the morning to commute to work in Mankato, work a full day, and commute back home. We would eat dinner together and then he would often roast in the garage until midnight. It reached a point of being unsustainable. We decided that we either needed to put a cap on orders and events, hire someone, or figure out how Jim could move away from his job to roast full time.” Crystal explained.

Jim had fallen in love with the roasting process and they decided to start looking for a space where they could run a commercial level roastery. Crystal reached out to the city administrator of Kasson about spaces that could work well for their project and at their recommendation looked into a space that at one time was a local library and, before that, a post office. The space needed a lot of work, but they decided that it was the best fit for what they had in mind and started leasing it.

In March of 2019, after a long and somewhat frustrating build-out process, the roastery officially opened for business and Jim transitioned out of his other job and into running the roastery full time. They transitioned from a cottage food license to being licensed through the Department of Agriculture as a commercial roastery and started providing beans to grocery stores, restaurants, and coffee shops as well as selling at the Rochester Farmers Market with a small espresso cart.

“It was initially really challenging getting our name out there and marketing our product. It takes quite a lot of courage to approach businesses about carrying our beans. We know we’re small, but also know that we can provide a really wonderful coffee product. Sometimes it takes multiple approaches and you have to get used to hearing no a lot.”

Today, you can find their coffee beans at fourteen different locations and their brewed coffee at seven different spots between Rochester, Kasson, and Byron!

Like many businesses, the pandemic provided its challenges to Jim and Crystal and their business but also pushed them to make some positive changes.

“In some ways it ended up being a huge blessing. We really started pushing online sales and pivoted to free local delivery within twenty miles of the roastery, which we’ve continued to do. We also started curbside pick-up for drinks.”

In February of 2021, business had picked up enough to require a change in equipment. Jim was still roasting on their small commercial roaster which could only roast three pound batches at a time. They purchased a larger roaster from Mill City Roasters out of the Twin Cities, with which Jim can roast a little over twenty-six pounds of coffee per batch. Around that time they also purchased a few other pieces of equipment to save time and streamline the roasting and bagging process.

At Trail Creek Coffee Roasters, they focus on roasting single origin coffees with beans from Ethiopia, Peru, Tanzania, Columbia, and Guatemala as well as an espresso blend. They’ve also collaborated with multiple charities such as The Landing and Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch to develop special roasts for fundraising purposes.

Though the business requires both Jim and Crystal to wear many different hats and do many different kinds of work, Jim enjoys roasting the most.

“My favorite part of roasting is really being in tune with the coffee, from hearing first crack to seeing the color change as the roast progresses. I enjoy the challenge of working with different types of coffee and fine tuning the management of each roast with various heat and airflow settings. It ends up being a cool fusion of art and science.” Jim said.

He continued, “You don’t have to have a technical degree to roast coffee, anyone can learn how, but you do need to pay close attention and be detail oriented. There are a lot of nuances to roasting coffee well.”

In the future, Jim and Crystal would like to expand their distribution to provide coffee in more grocery stores and businesses as well as grow to have a coffee trailer for markets and events. Their roasting location is also a work in progress, which they purchased from the city in May of 2022, and they would like to eventually convert it into a coffee shop space where people can come in and enjoy their coffee. They’ve also started cultivating some relationships with coffee growers in the hopes to import coffee directly from them someday.

When they aren’t busy with work, they enjoy spending time with their sons, often hiking and being outdoors as much as they can.

As a word of advice to others considering starting a business, Crystal said, “Write down what your dream is for the business along with a business plan, as boring as that may be, and keep referring to it throughout the process of getting going. It can really help to guide you, especially as things get hard. You may question every day whether it's going to work or if it's worth it, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop. You know it's going to be hard, but also rewarding, which can get you through a lot of challenges.”

Thank you for taking the time to read Jim and Crystal’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Trail Creek Coffee Roasters and where to find their coffee by clicking the link below!

Trail Creek Coffee Roasters

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 7/6/22 Corrie Strommen 7/6/22

A Love of Bees, Business, and Community Education with John Shonyo

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with John Shonyo, who shares his love for bees through community education and a thriving honey business, The Bee Shed. Here’s his story!

John Shonyo has been beekeeping for thirteen years, both as a hobbyist and professionally through he and his business partner’s honey business, The Bee Shed. He was originally introduced to beekeeping later in life through his uncle, who started tending to bees after returning home from World War 2 and continued to do so into the 90s. For John, beekeeping became an instant love.

At the time, John was working in administration at Mayo Clinic, nearing retirement. John chuckled and said, “Retirement didn’t go very well for me, I really like to keep busy and have something to do.” John soon began keeping his own bees on his property and his small scale hobby quickly became a small business, his solo project, The Bee’s Knees.

“I was lucky to have a neighbor nearby who also kept bees and taught me a lot about the bees and the business.”

This neighbor, Ed Simon, was Chris Schad’s business partner at the time and together they ran the first iteration of The Bee Shed. He introduced John and Chris and sparked the partnership that they have today. Timing was right as Ed was looking to leave the business and John was looking to expand and garner the support of a partner in the business.

John and Chris’ venture has scaled immensely over the years as they grew from a two hive to a two-hundred hive operation.

“Go into business with someone you like and respect, respect being the most important of the two.” John said. “It’s also important that you each have skill sets that compliment one another. For example, Chris is a biologist and has a lot of knowledge about the land and plants that help bees thrive. I really love spending time working directly with the bees and also feel that I am helpful in marketing and promoting our business.”

While getting started, John and Chris grappled with the question of how quickly and aggressively they should scale their business as well as marketing their product. They have always been invested in not accumulating large debt to run their business and always return profits to the business to help scale it.

The Bee Shed has since grown to supply several local businesses with honey, coffee shops such as Cafe Steam and Fiddlehead, SXSE Brewing, and local restaurants. They sell bottled honey at many different grocery stores in the area such as HyVee, local co-ops, Natural Grocers, and others. They can also be found at several local markets like Thursdays Downtown, Art on the Ave, and Farmers Market.

The Bee Shed honey is unique in that they collect honey from their bees four times a year rather than the typical one to two times per year. They do so strategically over different seasons to collect several different flavors of honey from their bees corresponding with seasonal foraging patterns of their bees. Their spring honey tends to be lighter and more delicate in flavor, reflecting the bee’s diet of spring blossoms. The summer honey, the most typical honey harvesting season for most beekeepers, reflects notes of clover, wildflowers, and berry blossoms. Fall honey reflects more interesting flavors like that of goldenrod and other late blooming flowers. They also feature buckwheat honey which is collected from buckwheat fields and has a unique rich flavor and a very dark color.

John and Chris have begun sending their bees to California for the duration of our harsh, Minnesota winters, where they help to pollinate almond trees. As they were raising their bees, they noticed that they were losing up to sixty percent of their bees over the winters. Now, sending them to California, they lose less than thirty percent in transport. Bees, while amazingly resilient creatures, do face frequent danger from weather, infestations of mites, and lowered immunity to diseases, which can make the business of keeping them a challenge.

John has long sought support for this small business through local organizations and peer groups. He has been a member of Collider’s Food Peer Group since 2021.

“Peer groups are really helpful in seeing your business through fresh eyes. There have been some facets of our business or things that we were trying to do that we restructured or changed due to feedback we received from peers. The information sharing is really valuable, there are so many resources you may not be aware of that others can share with you or that you can share with others.”

As a word of advice to aspiring business owners John said, “When considering starting a business make sure that you are utilizing every local resource that you can. There are a lot of organizations that can be of help. You also need to educate yourself. I don’t necessarily believe in ‘naturally gifted’ business owners- I think natural talent can get you started, but there’s a lot of personal education and hard work that needs to go into starting a business.”

John is a longtime community educator in all kinds of areas from biking, marathon running, and now in beekeeping. He and Chris currently offer classes through Community Education in both Rochester and Redwing to help educate early stage beekeepers in the area. John’s favorite teaching opportunities are with children in schools and other educational programs.

“Anytime I’ve become really interested in something I’ve taken the time to learn a lot about it. I think it’s important to share that knowledge with others.”

During the small amounts of time John is not a busy bee himself, he enjoys reading, spending time with his grandchildren, and being outdoors with his wife. He also enjoys time spent at Rochester’s local coffee shops.

Still, one of his very favorite pastimes is tending to his bees.

“I’ve always found bees to be so fascinating. Watching them work is like watching a thousand tiny miracles every day. There are so many interesting things that they can do. It’s really magical.”

Thank you for taking the time to read John’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about The Bee Shed and where to find their honey by clicking the link below!

The Bee Shed

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 6/29/22 Corrie Strommen 6/29/22

Gelato on Wheels: Combining A Love of Great Flavors and Food Trucks through The Wandering Scoop

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners. We recently chatted with Jeremy Marquez, who last year was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning his own business through his mobile gelato bus, The Wandering Scoop. Here’s his story!

“Owning my own business was a childhood dream of mine,” Jeremy explained.

“I had some relatives that ran a furniture store and a restaurant which was cool to see growing up. I’ve never been much of a rule follower and I always liked the idea of having the freedom to do my own thing. I just didn’t really know what I wanted to do for a long time.” he continued.

Jeremy was raised in Rochester and has remained here for most of his life. After graduating high school, he pursued a college education in music and accounting at Winona State University. He met and married his wife, they settled down in Rochester, and started their family which has grown to include three children.

After college and for the following ten years, Jeremy managed retail at Trader Joe’s. He also worked “off and on” at Chocolatarie Stam in the Galleria during those years.

“I mean chocolate and gelato, what’s not to love? I kind of fell in love with gelato when Chocolatarie Stam asked me to make it for a summer about five years ago. Initially a lot of the recipes were just box mixes. I thought we could do a bit better than that. So I started researching traditional Italian methods of making gelato. The following summer I spent a good amount of time experimenting with recipes and focusing on better ingredients.”

As Jeremy was learning how to make delicious gelato, thoughts of owning his own business lingered, and an interest in food trucks developed.

“As the food truck scene was picking up I started thinking about how fun it would be to run one.”

In 2019, Jeremy rented a mobile cart from Chocolatarie Stam to experiment with serving at events and in various spots around town. The gelato was well received and Jeremy started thinking more seriously about the possibility of starting a gelato based food truck. His school bus business ended up being a lucky Craigslist find, as the bus was already outfitted as a diner inside. He and his wife purchased the bus and started building a plan for what would later become The Wandering Scoop.

Their plans were quickly disrupted by the pandemic.

“2020 was a difficult year. We wanted to start the business, but I wasn’t sure when restaurants would re-open or how long it would last. Everything was up in the air too long into the summer to get going in time and I had to push off our plans to the following year.”

In 2021, Jeremy licensed the truck, went through various inspections, and had the bus up and running for business in July. He felt challenged by the tasks of learning how to market his product, finding businesses to collaborate with, and establishing a consistent customer base during the all too brief six months when the truck can be open for business (and people are eager to buy gelato). “No one wants to buy gelato out of a food truck in January,” Jeremy said, chuckling.

During the months that The Wandering Scoop is operational, the now bright pink school bus can often be found at the Red Barn Learning Farm in Hayfield, the Farmers Market, and local breweries such as Thesis Beer Project, Little Thistle Brewing, and LTS Brewing Company.

“Over the last year I’ve really fallen in love with a lot of the local breweries here. They’ve created some great atmospheres and it’s great to see people in their outdoor spaces enjoying the weather while having a drink and talking to friends.”

Jeremy also makes the bus available for events, whether that be at local churches or schools, or for graduation and birthday parties.

Jeremy enjoys developing the delicious gelato flavors which they rotate through often.

Photo by Corrie Strommen (the Raspberry Lemon Swirl is her favorite!)

“The gelato I would consider my ‘signature flavor’ I make with a special chocolate that I import from Ecuador. I spent a lot of time researching and working with a farm based in Ecuador to get the chocolate here.”

“I really like working with my hands and creating delicious gelato. I enjoy the process of tweaking recipes and making them better.” he continued.

Jeremy sources his milk locally from Kappers Big Red Barn in Chatfield as well as using local honey when he needs it for certain recipes. He would like to work with local farmers for fruit as well, but this can be a challenge as he uses as much as twenty pounds of fruit per batch of gelato; many farms can’t keep up with the quantity that is needed. Jeremy hopes to develop some uniquely Minnesotan flavors in the future. Looking forward, he would also like to work toward opening his own brick and mortar shop.

For now, he’s happy with The Wandering Scoop and sharing the experience of running it with his family. “My oldest son is seven and he just loves coming along and helping me out on the truck. It’s really rewarding seeing him interact with all these people he’s never met before.”

Though he’s busy with The Wandering Scoop as well as working another part time job, Jeremy spends much of his free time with his family. They spend as much time as they can outdoors, camping and hiking. As a musician, he also enjoys singing and playing the guitar, piano, and violin.

To those considering starting their own business, Jeremy said, “Just go for it. The biggest challenge for me was just getting over my own mental hurdles. I didn’t feel like I was ready when I got started, but I’m really glad that I did. Not everything is perfect, but I know that I’m serving an awesome product and I can just keep tweaking things along the way.”

“I love seeing people come back for more. There’s something amazing about creating a product that people love. It makes me want to keep going.”

Thank you for taking the time to read Jeremy’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about The Wandering Scoop and where to find their delicious gelato by clicking the link below!

The Wandering Scoop

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 6/22/22 Corrie Strommen 6/22/22

Croissants and the Cottage Food Business: Baker and Software Developer, Sharon Su, Shares Her Experience

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Sharon Su, who runs her own cottage food bakery business, Persimmon Bakeshop. Here’s her story!

Sharon Su attributes her longtime love of baking to her mother, who taught her to bake at a young age. “I got into baking when I was young because of my mom, and she started baking because we didn’t live near any Asian bakeries and she missed the pastries she was used to.”

Sharon spent most of her childhood in York, Pennsylvania. Though she enjoyed baking, she had other plans for her career path. After high school she attended Purdue University for computer science and mathematics, which, through a job offer at IBM, led her to Rochester. Sharon continued working for IBM for the next eight years, where she met her husband. She eventually transitioned and worked for a company called HGST which would later become Western Digital, keeping her Rochester based.

“It’s an interesting town. I feel like a lot of people are pushing for cool things to happen in art and culture which is really neat.”

Sharon explained that she really got into baking as an adult to connect with coworkers. Bringing cookies into the office was a pretty great ice breaker! As her friends started getting married she also had the opportunity to bake and decorate cakes for them.

In 2011, Sharon decided to try selling her pastries at events, the first of which was Art on the Ave, followed by Thursdays on First. Thursdays were immediately a challenge since the event happened on a workday and she had to take time off of her day job to make it work. She stuck it out for a month, then pursued some other event options because, at the time, events were her only option.

“Back when I was getting started, Minnesota didn’t even have a fully formed cottage food law. Instead there was something called a ‘pickle law’ (as the name suggests, it existed for individuals who wanted to sell homemade jars of pickles and other canned goods). Baked goods also fell under the pickle law. But the tricky part of the law was that you couldn't facilitate direct sales to customers, you had to sell your goods at community events. Outside of events it was very difficult to sell anything.”

Frustrated with market challenges and inflexible laws around cooking and selling food from one’s home, Sharon started looking into commercial kitchen spaces to rent and use for her baking, unfortunately with little success.

“Most of the places I reached out to weren’t willing to let me use their spaces, which I understand because of course it’s a big risk to trust a complete stranger with something that could potentially burn your building down.”

In 2015, the cottage food law passed and Sharon gave up on her efforts to find and use a commercial kitchen. Selling her goods became simpler and she eventually became a regular vendor at the Rochester Famers Market.

As business picked up and Sharon started selling her goods at a higher quantity and more regularity, pricing became a challenge as she tried to determine a way to not price her goods higher than what the average Rochester consumer was willing to pay, and yet be fair to herself and her efforts.

“Rochester is interesting in that it has Mayo Clinic, which makes it cosmopolitan in a way, but in many other ways it's still just a typical Midwestern town. It makes pricing things tricky because I feel like there are people around who are willing to spend a little extra for an everyday luxury, and others that think that you’re charging way too much for a baked good. I don’t want to price myself out of the market, but I also care about paying myself a fair wage and sourcing locally as much as possible.”

Pricing has continued to be a challenge as the pandemic caused immense supply shortages and price spikes for products. In the early months of the pandemic, Sharon had to completely stall production because she was unable to acquire flour or sugar from grocery stores like she had in the past. This, however, had a positive solution as Sharon connected with a Minnesota based flour mill, which never experienced an interruption and was able to continue supplying flour to people. The pandemic has also led to the necessity of pre-packaging each individual product that Sharon makes, which has added significant time and money to the process of selling her goods.

Ultimately, Sharon said that she does her best to price fairly by combining the estimated cost of goods and ingredients, her labor, the overhead of rent, and market fees. “I do my best, but sometimes it still feels like I’m throwing a dart at a board and hoping it works out,” she explained.

Sharon hopes in the future to start a subscription service for her baked goods, to remove some of the risk involved in baking goods she isn’t entirely sure will be sold, to minimize waste, and to make sure that she makes enough pastries for everyone who wants them. She does not, however, see herself expanding to a brick and mortar shop.

“I’ve noticed during my time selling my pastries that some consumers don’t view cottage bakers as professionals in the industry. Even other professional bakers might not view me as a professional, even though people pay for my products. Which is just a strange perception because I believe that if people are paying for your goods, you’re a professional baker.”

She continued, “Sometimes people come up to me at the Farmers Market and say things like ‘You should totally open your own place!’ ‘You should get a brick and mortar shop; it would be great!’ and I know they’re paying me a compliment by saying those things. Honestly, I’m not sure that I would want that kind of responsibility. It would also be really hard for me to give up my software developer job. In college I was one of two women in my classes and I had to work really hard to get where I am today. I’m really happy with where I’m at now with both my day job and my baking. I feel like sometimes the default goal for businesses has been to grow, grow, grow, but I really feel like it’s okay if you want to stay small and not expand.”

Sharon’s favorite pastry to bake is croissants, because of the technically challenging process. “There’s always a way to make them better.” she said.

In Sharon’s spare time she enjoys playing on a local broomball league as well as playing violin in the Rochester symphony. She often finds herself at the Rochester Public Library feeding her “cookbook obsession” and enjoys watching movies at Gray Duck Theater. She also loves local coffee shops such as Fiddlehead and Cafe Steam.

To those considering starting a food based business out of their home, she said, “If you’re interested in starting a cottage food business, it’s pretty easy to register so just go for it! It’s also really helpful to seek out a community or a peer group for support. Even if you feel like you don’t know everything you need to know to get started, jump in anyway. Don’t let that be a barrier for you.”

Sharon gleans happiness from the joy her baking brings to others. “I really have some of the best customers, I love them. One of my favorite things about baking is that pastries make people happy. The best part is when people come up to me and say, ‘I really love your croissants!’ or ‘I was having a bad day, but I had one of your pastries and I feel a lot better.’ That’s what I love about doing this.”

Thank you for taking the time to read Sharon’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Persimmon Bakeshop by clicking the link below!

Persimmon Bakeshop

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*Sharon is a participant in a Food Peer Group facilitated by Collider! If you or someone you know could use the support of entrepreneurs working in food-based businesses, reach out to us at hello@collider.mn and we will help get you connected!

Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 6/15/22 Corrie Strommen 6/15/22

"A Little Bit of Everything" A Crazy Plan Fulfilled at Squash Blossom Farm with Susan Waughtal and Roger Nelson

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of local entrepreneurs and small business owners! We were recently delighted to visit the beautiful Squash Blossom Farm and hear the story of the couple that brought the historic farmstead to life, Susan Waughtal and Roger Nelson.

Susan Waughtal and Roger Nelson, an artist who worked in the non-profit world and a longtime architect, could not have foreseen all that would come in years ahead when they purchased their 10-acre, 100-year-old farmstead in 2008. The first thing they did for the farm, which lies just two miles between Rochester and Oronoco near Douglas, was give it a name, “Squash Blossom Farm.”

Following a life-long yearning to have a little farm, Susan and Roger only had plans to maintain the property as hobby farmers, keeping a few chickens and planting a small garden. But when their college-age children returned home with big ideas for reviving the farmstead-they all jumped in head first with a large garden, a dozen laying hens, four hundred meat chickens, fifteen turkeys, two steers, two pigs, and a milk cow.

With no farming background in the family, there was much to be learned when it came to cultivating the land and caring for the livestock on the farm.

“Thankfully the times are great for learning now. For example, we bought a milk cow and had to learn how to milk her. So we watched Youtube videos to figure out how.”

Susan continued, “Our farming neighbors were also very helpful as we were getting started. I’m sure they thought we were crazy, thinking that we could be farmers, but they were very generous with their knowledge.”

Along with maintaining a large garden for CSAs (a subscription-like food service to receive fresh produce and support local farms) and raising animals, they took on a great deal of baking and sold their goods at the Rochester Farmers Market.

Susan looked at Roger with a laugh during our interview, “Way back in college days he would write me letters from France, where he was studying. They were kind-of love letters, but really they were just all about French bread- now he’s an artisan bread baker.”

Roger chimed in, “The work that we do here is very satisfying. I compare it to the work I did as an architect. You start out with a sketch on a napkin, then there’s a long process of fleshing out a design and eventually it turns into something that will be built. But that could be anywhere from two, to five, to ten years from the time you started with that little sketch to the end result. And someone else is doing the actual work of building the structure. Here things are so much more immediate. I can mix the dough, put it into the oven, and it comes out as bread. There’s this sort of immediate and personal interaction with physical, tangible work. That’s what I love about it.”

Years later, Susan and Roger have now expanded to have an onsite commercial kitchen, host pizza on the farm evenings, live music, and weddings, make their own chocolate, and have most recently opened a mead tasting room on the property. With that growth, they’ve made other changes through the years such as cutting down on the number of animals on the farm to create more space for parking and discontinuing their CSA and just use their produce for breads, pastries, pizza, and other food items on the farm.

“I feel that one of the best things we’ve done over the years is trying out a lot of different things but on a very small scale. We didn’t put all of our eggs into one basket (literally!) and we spent several years trying things and seeing what we were good at and what worked for us financially. We let the farm evolve naturally with us. Our goal with Squash Blossom has never been to get rich. It’s a life experience for us. We want to experiment with a lot of different things and hopefully the farm sustains itself.” Susan said.

Early on when getting Squash Blossom operating, Susan and Roger took the Farm Beginnings class with the Land Stewardship Project, which is a year-long course for first time farmers.

“We were the odd older couple among a group of mostly young people trying to figure out buying their land and whatnot. There we were with our land and no idea what to do with it. One of the projects of the course was to build a business plan for your farm and launch your vision for it. Ours included so many crazy things like a pizza farm, CSA, a commercial kitchen, events and festivals. Here we are, years later we are doing absolutely everything that was on that crazy plan.” Susan said.

Roger continued, “In a way it’s much like farms would have operated in the past, when things were on a much smaller scale and farmers did a little bit of everything, they were fairly diverse. Having a diverse amount of relatively small operations means that you aren’t overly reliant on any one thing along the way. As the years pass, if you have some variety and diversity among your farm or business, you’re more resilient to deal with changes in climate, or economy, or a pandemic. I like to think of our business enterprises the same way as I think about the ecosystem of our farm.”

Throughout the pandemic, they were able to adapt as the Farmers Market sales moved online. They started selling soups, frozen pizzas, and pot pies through the Rochester Farmers Market online platform. “We still had good sales despite not being able to sell all the things we used to at markets or have pizza nights on the farm.” They used the time and isolation the pandemic gave them to perfect their bean-to-bar chocolate-making operation, pursue a farm winery license, expand the certified kitchen expansion for making mead and chocolate, and transform the south wing of the barn into a mead-tasting room, which just opened last weekend!

They’re very grateful for the people who have always loved and supported their work at Squash Blossom.

“I don’t think our initial vision for the farm involved so much engagement with the community. But we feel that this is such a special place and it would be selfish to not share it with the community. We have a really great base of customers who always make a point to find us at the Farmers Market or come here for pizza. Sometimes they ask if they can come out and weed the garden or offer to help us with projects. They’re just wonderful.”

The two of them glean much joy from their lives at Squash Blossom, whether it be through feeding the animals, accomplishing a big project, watching the birds, or the changing of the seasons.

“We take on a lot, so any stress we have here is our own darn fault.” Susan said with a laugh. “But at the end of the day, when you collapse into bed completely exhausted knowing what you’ve accomplished, it’s pretty amazing.”

“We feel so, so lucky to have been able to pursue this dream,” Susan said. “Sometimes you have to be patient and find your way to make your idea a reality. You need to be resourceful. But it seems to me that if you put an intention out into the universe, things will come together somehow.”

Thank you for taking the time to read Susan and Roger’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Squash Blossom Farm by clicking the link below!

Squash Blossom Farm

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 6/1/22 Corrie Strommen 6/1/22

Bringing a Love of Art into Hair and Make-up Styling with Amber Berry

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester based entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Amber Berry, who specializes in bridal hair and make-up and runs her own salon in Rochester!

Longtime hair and make-up artist, Amber Berry, always intended to pursue a creative career path, though cosmetology was not what she initially had in mind.

Amber was born and raised in Southeast Minnesota. After she graduated from high school she had plans to attend college for fine art, but at the suggestion of a close friend, she enrolled at the Aveda Arts and Sciences Institute in Minneapolis. Over the next three years she immersed herself in school.

“It just clicked. The education was great and I was able to meet and learn from people of so many different backgrounds and cultures. I really embraced the experience and learned so much.”

She especially loved make-up contests and hair shows that were put on by the school.

“During the make-up contests, our instructor would show us a look out of a book and we would have to recreate it.” She laughed and said that she won quite a few, if not all of those contests. “The hair shows Aveda would put on were really good opportunities to experiment with different, bold colors. Some looks would turn out amazing, some were a bit questionable. But that’s how you learn.”

After completing her program at Aveda, Amber moved to Rochester and worked for a salon downtown for a time before relocating to St. Charles, where she worked for the next nine years. While doing hair and make-up for clients going to prom, Amber started falling in love with formal hair and make-up styling.

“Prom was of course always a crazy busy day at the salon. While I was working in St. Charles, we would have thirty girls come in to get their hair and make-up done within seven hours, which was really intense. But it was always a great learning experience.”

Eventually, Amber started to feel stagnant in St. Charles and decided to move back to Rochester. She also decided that she was ready to open her own salon.

“I was at a point where I didn’t feel that there were any more opportunities for growth for me there. I felt stuck and like I’d hit a wall both personally and professionally. I missed living in a larger city and felt that it was time to move on. I also felt that I was ready to start working independently. Rochester was a good option because it was a big enough town for me to feel happy in and also close enough for my clients from St. Charles to keep seeing me. It was a big change, which was scary but also wonderful.”

After moving, Amber leased her own small studio space out of Sola Salon Studios, which houses several independent stylists. She jumped in headfirst, specializing in bridal hair and make-up.

“I was really fortunate with how smoothly the whole process of opening went. I have a lot of amazing, loyal customers that helped make the transition very natural. It was like it was meant to be.”

Shortly after moving back to Rochester and opening her studio, Amber became connected with the local photographer, Krista Weisz of The Moments of Life Photography, and Brianna Prudoehl of Fox and Fern Floral, who asked her to collaborate on some styled events and photo shoots. “Studs, Struts, and Stilettos,” a local construction fashion show which benefits the Rochester Area Habitat for Humanity, remains one of Amber’s favorite events to style. She loves the opportunity to play with really out of the box hairstyles and make-up looks to help create a striking fashion ensemble.

Photo by The Moments of Life Photography

“If I could, I would move to New York and do special effects make-up all day long. Rochester is quite conservative, so I love opportunities to do styled shoots and put together vivid colors for fun, wild looks.”

Looking back on the past nine years that she’s been in business in Rochester, Amber cannot recall a slow workday, with the exception of being shut down during the pandemic.

“I remember shutting down on St. Patrick’s Day. All of us running our studios out of Sola were really confused and weren’t sure what to do. It was a very weird feeling. I was shut down until June 1st. I couldn't work at all and I was homeschooling my daughter, which was a challenge. Those few months were a struggle, but ultimately everything worked out. And looking back, I wouldn't take back those months. I had so much time with my daughter that I otherwise would not have had.”

When Amber reopened for business she was immediately swamped with clients desperate to get their hair done after those months in quarantine. She worked twelve to fourteen hours a day to get caught up. “I basically buried myself in work here and it hasn’t slowed down much since.”

Despite her busy schedule, Amber always makes time for her daughter. “She’s a competitive swimmer so I spend a lot of time at the Rec. Center. We also love traveling together. I just love experiencing new things and my daughter has found that same love. Spending time with her and going to different places is one of my favorite things.” Amber also enjoys gardening and painting.

As a word of advice to aspiring business owners Amber said, “Take chances and believe in yourself. If you put the work into an idea, even if it’s a slow process, taking the time to be creative and develop an idea is important. You never know where it will lead you. Even if it doesn’t work out, you learn and walk away with the experience. No one can take that away from you.”

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Amber’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about A Berry Hair by clicking the link below!

A Berry Hair

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 5/25/22 Corrie Strommen 5/25/22

How LTS Brewing Company Co-Owner, Brandon Schulz, Fulfilled His Vision To Use Beer to Bring People Together

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We had the recent pleasure of sitting down with Brandon Schulz, who shared with us his journey from being a home brewer to becoming the co-owner of LTS Brewing Company.

Though the brewery wouldn’t open for another eight years, when Brandon Schulz, now co-owner of LTS Brewing Company, started home brewing as a hobbyist, he found himself drawn to the community aspects of brewing and bringing people together to enjoy good beer.

“I really enjoy brewing beer, but the real draw for me has always been getting to share it with friends. I think that some people open breweries because they’re really passionate about brewing beer and it fulfills some need that they have. For me, it’s more about people and community. I love working with the team we have here at LTS and chatting with the people who come in to support us and drink our beer.”

From a young age, Brandon, though without real dreams of starting his own business, felt that he was surrounded by an entrepreneurial spirit. Whether that came in the form of his father running a credit union, taking initiative to mow lawns during high school, or building trailers during summer months while growing up. Though LTS was his first formal business venture, he doesn’t view it as a big mental leap.

Brandon was raised in the small town of New Salem, North Dakota and did not become a Rochester resident until after college, upon receiving a job offer from IBM in 2001. While working there, he went on to pursue his master’s in computer science from the University of Minnesota. After attaining his degree, he moved on to work for Western Digital where Brandon met Jeff Werning, who would later become his business partner and co-owner of LTS.

“We both enjoyed beer and the idea of opening a brewery. I was home brewing at the time and had tried starting a brewery with some friends, but it didn’t get very far. When Jeff and I started talking about it, we decided to take the idea further and put together a business plan.”

Though they were still working full time at Western Digital, the two of them slowly started building a strategy for opening the brewery. Living and working in Rochester made it a natural choice for location. They also felt that smaller, outlying towns didn’t seem ready to support a brewery. Rochester seemed more likely to provide a larger community and customer base to work with, as its own small craft beer scene was just getting started. They moved forward and bought the property for LTS in 2013, though it wouldn’t open for business until 2015.

“We didn’t have any investors other than ourselves. We wanted to bootstrap the funding and put in a lot of the work without having to take on investors or a ton of personal debt. Jeff and I are both handyman type people and did everything we could legally do ourselves. On top of that we continued working full time through the build out process. So it was a lot slower than if we had paid someone to do it all for us, but we really put the work in and made it our own.”

Like any business opening, theirs was not without its hiccups between navigating Minnesota’s somewhat stuck-in-prohibition-era liquor laws and grappling with restrictive city ordinances, zoning, and permitting issues. Eventually, plans were approved, equipment was installed, the finishing touches were placed on the space, and LTS Brewing Company started slinging beers to the Rochester public in the summer of 2015.

LTS brews a wide variety of beers and they currently have twelve different styles on tap with something for everyone from a light, crisp German Kolsch, zippy IPAs, a decadent Stout, and a fruity, floral sour along with some hard seltzers and “beer cocktails” like their “Karmargarita.”

When asked about his favorite styles to drink and brew, Brandon stated, “Everyone’s palates change, mine included. When we first started, I was a really big fan of Belgian style beers, and as a result we’ve had a lot of them on tap over the years. For a long time they sold really well, but the market is starting to change and we have to adjust with it.”

That said, Brandon’s favorite beer that he’s brewed for LTS was a barrel aged Flanders Red Ale, which has pronounced sourness with hints of currant and cherry, and a light “funkiness” brought about by a variety of yeast used in the brewing process.

Brandon and Jeff made a lucky purchase for the brewery in November of 2019, a crowler machine, which is used to put beer into 750 milliliter (a little over twenty-five ounce) cans. Little did they know that there was a pandemic brewing and how much they would lean on that piece of machinery in the year to come. While the pandemic was hard on Brandon and his staff, he’s proud to say that, “We stayed open and we managed to keep all of our full time staff employed the whole time. Even when the taproom was shut down we were able to get by selling off-sale. The Rochester community was great and our customers were very supportive. We did everything we could to keep both our customers and our employees safe.”

With summer quickly approaching, Brandon is looking forward to a busy season full of events, activities, and great beer at LTS.

Though he’s kept busy with brewing and ownership responsibilities as well as continued work as a tech consultant, Brandon loves spending time outdoors with his wife and two children. They camp often through the summer and spend their time hiking, having bonfires, and grilling. Connecting with the community is also important to him and he enjoys distributing beer and visiting local restaurants. Some of his favorite spots include The Workshop, Wildwood Bar & Grill, Five West, Taphouse, and Thai Pop.

To those considering opening a business, Brandon advises, “Write down what your values are and what you’re trying to achieve as a business. Your values drive your decisions and can help you set meaningful goals. Ground yourself and avoid distractions as much as you can, because it’s going to be hard work.”

He concluded, “There will be challenges. But if you have a good team and stick to your guiding principles, you can push through almost anything. LTS stands for “Life’s Too Short” and it is. So if you have a vision or a dream, set yourself up and go make it happen.”

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Brandon’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about LTS Brewing Company by clicking the link below!

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 5/18/22 Corrie Strommen 5/18/22

A Love For Animals and Community: How Cassandra McGreevy is Working Toward Connected, Healthy Relationships Between Owners and Their Dogs

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently met with Cassandra McGreevy, who shared with us her journey as a lifelong animal lover turned business owner and educator through her dog training business, Delightful Downtown Dogs. We also got to meet her dog, Layla, and she certainly is delightful!

Photo contributed by Cassandra McGreevy

Raised in a family of animal lovers, Cassandra always knew that her life work would revolve around animals in some way.

“I always knew that I wanted to work with animals as a career. Growing up, it felt very special being able to be around so many animals as my family always had dogs, horses, and cats as pets. I really felt that I was able to connect to them and understand them in a special way. I learned early on that animals mostly care about just living and being happy, which in turn is great for us to be around as humans.”

While pursuing her college education at the University of Wisconsin River Falls, Cassandra majored in animal science with a minor in chemistry, at the time thinking that she may pursue a veterinarian career. She also dedicated time in college to further her knowledge of horses and training techniques while at school by participating in the Colts-in-Training Program, which is a nationally recognized program that teaches students how to start and train young horses. While in the program she was able to work directly with a young horse and build relationships with people in that area of expertise.

Never remiss in filling her time, Cassandra also taught gymnastics during her college years.

“That’s where my love of teaching children and just teaching in general really began growing and flourishing for me.”

After graduating, Cassandra continued using her knowledge of horse training by working on a ranch, assisting them in training twenty young horses over the course of a summer.

“The following summer I worked as the lead wrangler at Ironwood Springs, a local youth camp, where I taught horsemanship classes to the kids, as well as private lessons. I took kids out on trail rides and did kid’s camp activities, so I learned a lot about teaching and being around kids and horses. I was also lucky to find some great mentors there.”

After that summer at Ironwood ended and the heart-rending passing of her own horse occurred, Cassandra decided to take a small step back from working with horses. Her attention shifted to getting and training a dog. She had always dreamed of having a Dalmatian and dove headfirst into researching the breed to make sure it was right for her and interviewing various breeders. In the end, she drove eight hours to pick up Diamond D's Princess Layla CGC BN RN TKI, her very own Dalmatian puppy.

“I quickly realized why mom never let me have a Dalmatian as a child. They are very, very smart and I found that Layla was always two, three, four steps ahead of me. So I really needed to brush up on my training and change my training methods from an old school philosophy that I learned while growing up, into more positive reinforcement and behavioral science based training methods, which I have found to work much better for almost any dog out there. I went to a lot of seminars and dog shows with her so we could learn together.”

While going through an extensive training process with her own dog, Cassandra started noticing needs within the general Rochester dog ownership community.

“I would see things like dogs being off leash in inappropriate areas, or aggressive dogs on the trails. I thought that I could really help the dog owners in this community and bring a lot of positive energy and knowledge to the table.”

Cassandra connected with her first clients through her mother’s dog boarding business, Completely Canines, and from there found that word of mouth sent many others her way.

“A lot of what I’ve done to get more clients is just to do my very best with each individual that I work with. I’ve found that it always comes back to me positively as they refer me to others that they know.”

Taking on training dogs (and their owners) may not always be easy, but Cassandra enjoys the challenges each situation brings to her.

“I would say that I’m challenged by everyone that I work with. Each person learns differently in their own individual way, and dogs are the same. So it’s always fun meeting new people and their dogs and figuring out what their lifestyle is like, how their relationship with their dog is, and determining what puzzle pieces they are missing to communicate well and live together harmoniously.”

As Cassandra's client, individuals would communicate their training goals and share about their dog and themselves. From there she schedules virtual or in person training sessions which can be from home, or out and about in Rochester.

“We practice heeling, loose leash walking, stay, and relaxation. I always teach responsible ownership skills as well, like picking up after your dog, giving your dog space, and knowing how to react if your dog is stressed or upset. Usually I only need to work with pretty inexperienced people with the most reactive dogs up to six times at most to see really meaningful change. I provide reading materials and extensive notes on our sessions together and make sure that owners are learning right alongside their dogs.”

While she finds her work rewarding, it has not been without its challenges. She has found that while she is very passionate about working with dogs and their owners, she’s less excited about paperwork, building a website, and managing a social media presence.

“There are things that are easier and things that are harder, but I’m a lifelong learner. I’m taking a class right now all about marketing and social media. I'm learning a lot. I’ve found that, in my experience with owning a business, that it really is a reflection of you, especially when you’re still a really small business like I am. I have to be the best version of myself both inside and outside of work, which is going to allow me to grow and progress as a person and a business owner.”

Along with training Layla to be a good companion and an accomplished show dog, Cassandra has taken the time to undergo therapy dog training through Pet Partners.

“During these classes you have the opportunity to introduce your dog to wheelchairs, walkers, and different people. It really teaches you how to read your dog’s body language and figure out what your dog is communicating, so that you can help them feel safe and comfortable in unfamiliar situations. At the end of the course you have to pass an informational exam and your dog needs to pass an evaluation to make sure you both meet certain requirements.”

In the future, Cassandra would love to work toward owning her own small indoor training space where she could work with clients. Ultimately, she’s just excited to work with as many people and dogs as she can.

“At the moment, my main goal is just to connect with a lot of people in our community and help them develop happy, healthy relationships with their dogs.”

Outside of running Delightful Downtown Dogs, Cassandra loves playing music, which is how she met her husband. They love to perform together and Layla often joins them on stage.

“Sometimes I wonder if people are stopping for our music or our pretty dog,” Cassandra said, laughing.

She also loves hiking, horseback riding, and has recently gotten into plants and gardening. Local spots she loves include Kinney Creek Brewing, Benedicts, and Cafe Steam.

“I love my work and teaching people. I find it amazing that we really can directly influence our dogs’ behavior, we just have to learn how.”

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Cassandra’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Delightful Downtown Dogs by clicking the link below!

Delightful Downtown Dogs

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 5/4/22 Corrie Strommen 5/4/22

Building Art Community and a Space of Her Own with Cassandra Buck, Fine Artist and Owner of Clover & Rose

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Cassandra Buck, who is an artist, curator, and business owner, about her experience with finding and building art community in Rochester as well as opening her own art and vintage shop.

Cassandra Buck, full time artist and owner of the local vintage and art shop, Clover & Rose, always knew that art was what she wanted to pursue in life. Like most young, aspiring artists, she was met with opposition. Art isn’t a career, there’s no money in it. Rochester born and raised, in a family with little money to spare, Cassandra grew up feeling embittered toward Rochester and the lack of opportunities for a young artist like herself.

“After high school, I decided to go into art education because I really enjoyed working with kids and knew there would be some stable jobs in teaching. ”

She pursued her art education at Winona State University where she met and married her husband. After graduating from college, though she initially had no intentions of returning, she moved back to Rochester with her husband for the sake of jobs and stability. Cassandra started teaching art to middle schoolers and did so for the next seven years. She loved teaching, and was good at it, but ultimately Cassandra knew that working under education administration wasn’t for her. She saved her pennies, looking forward to the time when she could pursue art more fully. Eventually, on more or less mutual terms, Cassandra and teaching parted ways.

Shortly thereafter, Cassandra learned about the local art group, C4, and in doing so, found the art community that she had been longing for.

“I found C4 and realized that there was actually a whole community of artists and like minded people in Rochester that I didn’t know about. So I jumped in headfirst and got involved.”

Her involvement in C4 would later inspire her to start an artist cooperative, Gallery 24.

“C4 was kind-of winding down, but it had connected so many groups of creative people together. I was inspired to work with a group of artists to open a space where we could facilitate professional development, group critiques, and teach each other. It would also be a place where artists could sell their work and teach art classes to the public. I decided that it should be a non-profit for the sake of making classes low cost and accessible to anyone. I wanted to create a space that I wish I had access to when I was a young artist. So I got my artist friends together and asked them what they thought. We all decided to go for it.”

Gallery 24 was a success and helped the Rochester art scene and community grow immensely. Cassandra found herself doing a lot of community organizing, running the art programming at Forager where she also worked as a server part time, along with managing Gallery 24, her own art, and a young family.

Though she was pleased with what was being accomplished there, the time eventually came for Cassandra to pass the leadership of Gallery 24 into other hands. “I came to a point where I decided that I needed to focus on myself, my family, and what was best for my art and my practice.”

As Cassandra started thinking more about what it was she wanted for herself, the idea for Clover & Rose was born. Along with large-scale fine art pieces, she also made jewelry and did embroidery. Her various art and crafting pursuits, paired with a longtime love of vintage and thrifting she inherited from her mother and grandmother, sparked a desire for a space of her own.

“I knew I wanted to create my own space. So I just started daydreaming and keeping a mood-board for what I wanted it to look and feel like. I wanted to mix my art with vintage, have other artists sell their work there, and in a way mash up all of the creative things going on in my brain.”

As with many small businesses in Rochester, space was immediately an issue. Cassandra thought small and got creative.

“I didn’t have a space, but I did have a little breezeway that connected our house to the garage. It’s super tiny. But I decided to give it a try and put together a small collection of art and vintage to fill the space. I was only open a couple of days a week and I’m sure my neighbors thought I was crazy. ‘What is this lady doing with a weird little shop in her house?’ But somehow it worked.”

Some time later, Cassandra was approached by another local business owner, Vy Thorng of Hidden World Vinyl Records, who asked if she would be interested in sharing his space in the Lowertown Neighborhood. She ran the numbers, and decided that between some wild hodgepodge of sales, art programming revenue, money from serving, and grants, that she could make ends meet and make Clover & Rose a reality.

Today, walking into Clover & Rose, you are immediately greeted by the warm light of vintage lamps and fixtures, and plants can be found on any available surface not covered with local art and jewelry. A long rack of vintage clothing takes up one wall, and furniture and glassware find their homes throughout the delightfully quirky shop.

“It’s been a slow build,” Cassandra said. “After growing up with almost nothing, having my own space is huge. I have to remind myself of how far I’ve come to create this space. It keeps me motivated to continue creating.”

Cassandra curates a beautiful collection of art and vintage. “I’m open to anything that fits the vibe of the space. I also think it’s really important to support emerging artists who maybe don’t even realize that they should be selling their work.”

Cassandra is an accomplished fine artist who often shows her work at the gallery level. She has had work in both solo and group exhibitions featured at Winona State University, The University of Minnesota, and at the Austin Art Works Center, as well as in private collections, Rochester businesses, and the Ridgewater College permanent collection in Willmar Minnesota. Despite these accomplishments, she still needs to function on an entrepreneurial level, taking on commission work to help make ends meet. A constant challenge is marketing herself and her work.

“There always needs to be a balance. If I only do commission work and put off the pieces that I want to work on, I feel off kilter as an artist. But I also need to do commissions and promote myself to pay the bills.”

Cassandra’s advice to other aspiring artists and small business owners is to start small and build slowly from there, making sure that you’re supported and ready to take all the baby steps it requires to get your idea off of the ground.

Outside of creating her art and running Clover & Rose three days a week, Cassandra is busy with her home and family. They love local eats, are understandably biased toward the food at Forager, and also love Pho Chau, Bleu Duck, and Chesters. Cassandra enjoys reading, thrifting, relaxing by listening to records, and loves canoeing with her husband when they can get away.

In many ways, Cassandra, as an artist, business owner, and mother seeks to create a space, art community, and a city that she wishes she had when she was growing up in Rochester, to build a place she is proud to raise her children in and call home.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Cassandra’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Cassandra’s art and Clover &Rose by clicking the link below!

Cassandra Buck

Clover & Rose

Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 4/27/22 Corrie Strommen 4/27/22

Custom Sewing, Alterations, and Vintage Fashion with Brooke Burch

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Brooke Burch of Brooke Burch Custom Sewing & Alterations and Vintage Rack.

Brooke Burch, who runs a custom sewing and alterations business and sells vintage clothing out of her studio, attributes a longtime love of sewing and creativity to her grandmother, who she moved to Rochester to live with at an early age.

“I wouldn’t say that I was a hyper child, so much as inquisitive. To occupy that, my grandmother gave me all kinds of crafts to do. I was always playing with glue and yarn. I don’t know how, but at some point I got a hold of a needle and thread and took an interest in sewing. I would cut things up and tie and sew them back together. Eventually she must’ve gotten tired of me doing that because she got me a sewing machine and taught me the basics. So I grew up just experimenting with sewing.”

Although she loved sewing and designing, when she pursued further education at University of Wisconsin-Stout she was contemplating a degree in biology. But, a year into her studies when she declared her major, her childhood passion won out and she pursued Apparel Design and Manufacturing.

Brooke always had interest in traveling and exploring, so when the opportunities arose during college to be an apprentice in New York and study abroad in London, she jumped at both chances.

While in New York interning with a designer working out of his apartment, Brooke noted, “It opened my eyes to how difficult it is to maintain a business, especially in a big city. After all kinds of running around New York for supplies, I appreciated Rochester more.”

On her time in London she stated, “It was life changing. London is such a fashion town. I took the time to explore uncommon areas, meet new people, take photos, and people watch. I talked to people about what they were wearing and why they were wearing it. I think that’s what initially piqued my interest in styling, which isn’t at all what I learned in school. I learned how to create an ensemble or a collection and design patterns, but I didn’t really learn anything about trends in fashion and what people like to wear.”

After graduating, Brooke naturally gravitated back to Rochester to be close to family. But she already had plans as to what to do next, and wanted to do so from a place of safety in a familiar place.

“I always knew that I wanted to start my own business. I wanted to be the boss and not work for anyone else. I had an idea of how a business should be run and wanted to be able to do that myself, to make people happy and treat people fairly. Rochester was my bubble growing up, I felt comfortable there. I’m very cautious about making big moves. I always want to make sure that the moves I’m making are the right ones. So it’s been a slow build, but I’m building my business the way that I want.”

In 2015, shortly after having her son, Brooke, who had been working and teaching private sewing lessons out of an apartment she shared with her grandmother, found the need to expand.

“It was so tight in there with the baby. I didn’t have anywhere to sell my clothing. I was putting my sewing machine on the kitchen table to work. It was just crazy. So I got my own apartment to spread out. When I moved in I didn’t have anything. I had a table, a sewing machine, and a baby-that’s it. So I built it from the ground up and it was really, really hard for a while. I was working part time jobs while building this business, which I eventually had to quit. It was a really rough year, making all of those transitions, figuring out how to do this full time. I had to think on my toes, come up with innovative ideas, and work with a lot of people to make it happen.”

Fast forward to now and Brooke is busy with twenty sewing students, alteration and design clients, and Vintage Rack, a large collection of vintage pieces she sells out of her studio.

“I’ve always loved vintage, but I think I started becoming curious about it when I took a fashion history class in college. Then I started collecting sweaters. I had a sweater addiction. I loved all the wild 80’s prints. Shortly after I graduated I realized that I had to stop getting so many sweaters because I had nowhere to put them. That’s when I started thinking about selling them. So over time I curated a collection of sweaters and other vintage clothing which just lived in my studio for two years. Eventually clients started looking through the collection and buying things. So I started making the collection bigger, going to garage sales and making connections with people. Now I have a lot of stuff.”

When the pandemic hit and Brooke didn’t have people coming into her studio to shop, she improvised by having a large outdoor sale, which only sparked more interest and awareness of her vintage collection. And though the pandemic presented its challenges, it also provided a huge opportunity through mask making.

“The pandemic was certainly challenging, I definitely needed to do a lot of things differently. But I also made over five thousand masks and was able to bring in money that way.”

Though she’s faced many challenges along the way, Brooke has learned to roll with the punches. She’s hired a business coach to help her learn what she needs to create a successful business.

“I had to figure out that I couldn't do everything on my own. I had to reach out to different people for different things. Whether that’s for help with my website, asking for business advice, or hiring on people to help with embroidery. I had to pull in people to get this thing off the ground.”

Brooke hopes to expand to her own brick and mortar in the future, creating a curated boutique and studio outside of her home. Though some people have encouraged her to leave Rochester to pursue her expansion, Brooke sees opportunity here.

“This is a really good time to open business in Rochester; there isn’t a lot of competition here yet. You can become a pioneer in whatever field you want. I’ve never thought that you had to leave where you’re from to do whatever you love. I recently read an article that highlighted designers all over the United States, in all of these tiny little towns. These designers are making it happen in all kinds of places that you wouldn't expect. It is possible, you just have to dream big. Maybe I’ll open my first studio and Vintage Rack here and expand to another city in the future.”

She advises aspiring entrepreneurs to take initiative to pursue education, whether that be through a college degree or YouTube videos.

“As with most things, you need to be educated. I wouldn’t say that you need a degree, but you can pursue learning in many different ways whether it be YouTube videos, picking up a book at the library and asking some questions, or just using the internet to your advantage.”

Outside of work, Brooke loves walking and going on little adventures for artisanal coffee. Local spots she loves are Fiddlehead Coffee, Old Abe’s, and Cafe Steam. Brooke is also happy that she finds so much fulfillment in her work.

“Sewing is so therapeutic for me and I’m really lucky to have a job that affects me in that way.”

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Brooke’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Brooke Burch Custom Sewing & Alterations and Vintage Rack by clicking the link below!

Brooke Burch Custom Sewing & Alterations and Vintage Rack

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Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 4/13/22 Corrie Strommen 4/13/22

"A Labor of Love" Kat Helms of Pretty Good Cookies Shares Her Cookie Love with the Rochester Community

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners. We had the recent pleasure of meeting with Kat Helms, a recent addition to the Rochester community, who works at Mayo Clinic as an Occupational Therapist and founded Pretty Good Cookies as a small side business and passion project upon moving to Rochester!

Kat attributes her childhood love of baking with her sisters to her current cookie passion. Throughout childhood, high school, and college Kat has fond memories of baking with family and friends. While in grad school, off for a month over the holidays, she found herself bored and looking for something to fill her time. She turned to her trusty hobby, this time paying special attention to decorating the cookies she had made. The results were much better than anything she had done before.

In February of 2020, Kat moved to Rochester to start her position as an Occupational Therapist at Mayo Clinic. She immediately found herself thrown into a whole new pandemic world in a whole new city.

“I didn’t have a couch, a TV, not even a kitchen table. I had nothing to do, with the pandemic there just wasn’t anything going on. To fill my time I started learning more about the cookie decorating process.The baking part is very methodical and calming, I don’t have to think about it much. With decorating I get into my own flow and it’s very fun and therapeutic for me.”

“I would bring the cookies I made into work, which was really fun at the time. Morale was low at the hospital and it was such an anxious, uncertain time. My coworkers loved them. They would tell me ‘ You should sell these!’ ‘These cookies are too pretty to eat!’, and eat them and tell me how good they were.”

While considering starting a cookie business out of her home, Kat’s biggest concern was safety.

“I was asking myself if this idea was safe and smart. We were dealing with a respiratory virus that we just didn’t know a lot about at the time, and working in the hospital I was around it all the time. So I definitely had concerns about being an unintentional carrier and spreading it to customers. There was also the added issue with supply chains. Initially I was getting everything online. There were times that orders were taking weeks to arrive with time sensitive supplies, or while I was trying to fill an order. Recently a lot of items have been on backorder or not available which can be really stressful. I’ve had to get creative with the supplies that I’m using.”

On the flip side, Kat explained, “For the most part, I think starting a cookie business during the pandemic had a silver lining. Having all of that extra time during the pandemic really allowed me to practice so many techniques and really understand the medium of cookie decor.”

Kat also found that with more people spending time at home and not out and about that they were much more likely to spend money on a cookie decorating kit, spending family time together, and doing something creative and special.

Still very new to Rochester while starting Pretty Good Cookies, Kat, who was inspired by her coworkers to start her business, also found them to be integral in spreading the word about her cookies.

“I think the only reason I have the customer base I have now is because of my coworkers. They became my immediate community. They really jump-started my customer base and made it possible to get this project off the ground.”

They’ve gone so far as to say that Kat should make her cookies a full time job, but she has her reservations.

“To be frank, I don’t know if I would ever consider opening a brick and mortar here. Based on what I’ve seen of other bakeries and restaurants and the amount of turnover just over the couple of years that I’ve been here, it seems like a difficult scene to be successful in. I would also have to make so many cookies to compete with my day job salary. The cookie decorating process is truly a labor of love. Just to make a living wage I would have to charge around two hundred dollars a dozen, which just isn’t reasonable.”

She continued, “That said, I could see myself doing it half of the time. I really love what I do as an Occupational Therapist, and I think I’m really good at it. It’s a perfect profession for the medical side of my brain. But my creative side also wants to do more with cookies. So I think an equal blend of the two would be ideal in the future. I feel really lucky that I’ve found two things that I not only really enjoy doing, but am also really good at. Both were a learning process, but also in a way fell into my lap. I feel very fortunate that I have this problem of being pulled between two things that I love.”

Outside of working a full time job and running Pretty Good Cookies, Kat pursues all kinds of art projects.

“I’m a crafty, crafty gal.” Kat said. “I’ve done anything from making jewelry, quilting and glassblowing to painting, drawing and photography. Almost any artsy project I try I’m good at and really enjoy.”

She continued, “I also really love being outdoors. I love hiking; I love camping. I just like getting lost in nature and exploring new things.”

She also loves spending time with friends and trying out restaurants around town. Some of her favorite spots include Forager, Bitter and Pour, and Thai Pop.

“I love doing, learning, and exploring. I feel like I never left that childhood stage. I feel like a sponge; I just want to do it all!”

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Kat’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Pretty Good Cookies by clicking the link below!

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Pretty Good Cookies

Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 3/30/22 Corrie Strommen 3/30/22

Words from Amarama Vercnocke: Local Artist, Educator, and Entrepreneur

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! Amarama Vercnocke is a local artist, educator, and entrepreneur who was kind enough to sit down with us and share about their journey, thoughts on the bridge between art and entrepreneurship, their experience as a non-binary artist, and how we can best support our community of artists here in Rochester!

Thank you so much for watching! For more information on Amarama’s art and work in the community, click the link below! If you find value in this content, please consider supporting Collider and our storytelling efforts by donating.

Amarama Art

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Corrie Strommen 3/23/22 Corrie Strommen 3/23/22

High End Bridal and Attending to the Details with Claire Landgraf

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Claire Landgraf, owner of Finery Bridal Chic, a high end bridal shop, who was willing to share her story with us.

Photo by Twelve Ten Photography

Many of us are all too familiar with that stress inducing, all important wedding planning event- the selection of the dress. A bride entering Finery Bridal Chic will walk through their Broadway store doors and be greeted immediately by smiling faces and dazzling light glistening off of jewels and sequins, shining through lace and chiffon, and illuminating rows upon rows of immaculate gowns, any of which could be the one. Tailed by carefully selected friends and family, they are ushered onto sets of plush, velvet couches and into the guiding, helpful hands of Claire Landgraf and her team.

Claire entered the bridal industry in her hometown in Tennessee at an early age, seeking a job in high school. For her, it was love at first sight.

“I went into a shop looking for a prom dress and while I was looking my mom started chatting with the owner, who mentioned that she was looking for some part time help. I had never had a job before and thought it sounded like a lot of fun. I started right then during prom season and eventually she let me work up to selling bridal. It was like I was bitten by a bug. It was immediately so fun, artistic, and satisfying. Just like that, as a junior in high school, I knew that this was what I wanted to do and eventually branch off to have my own store.”

Years passed and Claire stuck to that resolute high school dream. In college she pursued dual degrees in business and english, all the while continuing to grow in the industry. She started off selling, moved up to management, became a shop-in-shop representative for a designer, and then worked as a dress buyer.

“I’ve been in the wedding industry for about fifteen years now and it's really where my heart is. We joke that it’s like joining the mob or the mafia, because once you get into it, you never really get out. It gets into your blood. There’s something very rewarding about working with brides and in such a happy space. There are so many opportunities in this industry to make a bride feel great, to have a positive impact on their body image, and help them plan aesthetically what they’re trying to create on their big day.”

In 2011, Claire moved to Rochester. Creatively burnt out from years in retail and only intending to be in Rochester for five years, Claire made a change and worked briefly in marketing. But when she began falling for Rochester and met her husband, she began thinking more seriously about her longtime dream of opening her own store.

“In a lot of ways Rochester reminded me of the town I grew up in, in terms of size, having an employment pillar like Mayo Clinic, and providing a great community for businesses to thrive and also for raising a family.”

Though she knew the ins and outs of the industry, opening her own business had its challenges.

“Finding a space was more challenging than I expected it to be. I knew it needed to be at least somewhat visible, either with drive by or foot traffic, which is why I chose downtown for my first location. Downtown rent was expensive and it took me a while to figure out a location. Dialing in designers that I wanted to carry was also a challenge. Which isn’t specific to me and my store, it's just something you have to tackle when you’re getting into the bridal business. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just picking up designers that were available, but also filled the design, service, and customization gaps that I was looking for.”

Now located at 1104 North Broadway, Claire has created a beautiful, welcoming space full of incredible gowns. But the space and the product aren’t the key to a successful high-end retail business, Claire points out, but the experience and service that you’re providing to each and every bride is.

“Over the course of my time working in bridal I worked both ends of the spectrum, from selling to brides on a $1,000 budget, all the way to brides buying $20,000 gowns. There’s a really vast difference in the level of service that a bride gets at a certain price threshold. It never made sense to me why a bride spending less money wouldn’t get the same high end experience as a bride spending more, but unfortunately it just isn’t usually the case.”

At Finery Bridal, Claire takes the extra time, energy, and money to attend to the details, whether that be a gift box with earrings and champagne or taking the time to walk brides through sizing and customizations. She enjoys the opportunity to tailor a unique and enjoyable experience to each and every bride.

“We have an awesome opportunity to be problem solvers here. Some brides come in unsure of how this works, had a poor experience elsewhere, or are having a difficult time finding something. We can be very versatile here with customizations and cater a lot of things to specific brides. Hokey as it sounds, we really can make a dream a reality. Brides often have an image of how they want to look on their big day. And whether that fits into a neat little box or six boxes, we can help them achieve that image.”

She continued, “It takes time to teach your employees how to provide excellent service. It also takes time to figure out what little things brides appreciate during their experience. This oftentimes is the most expensive clothing item that anyone is ever going to purchase, and typically only once. People want to get it right, so there’s a lot of stress tied up in finding their gown. Of course I can’t always provide the perfect dress, not everyone is going to find it here. But what I can provide is a two hour experience for any bride who walks in, where they have a safe space where they can be heard and supported.”

Claire has found challenges in the industry as she pursues owning a shop that is inclusive towards brides of all sizes.

“I find myself having the same conversations with brides now as I did when I was first starting out. Most clothing in our culture has shifted to vanity sizing and more inclusivity toward all bodies. The bridal industry unfortunately has not done so and is still operating off of European size charts which can put a bride in a gown that is anywhere from one to three number sizes larger than they would typically wear if they picked it off the rack at a store. That can be a difficult mental hurdle to get past. We can say all day long that a number doesn’t matter, but at the end of the day there’s so much noise coming at us as women about what the confines of traditional beauty constructs are supposed to be. While we may have done fantastic amounts of work or therapy to balance out that barrage of noise, often it’s still there to some extent.”

She continued, “While there’s still a huge void in the market for size inclusivity, I’ve started seeing more offerings for curvy brides. I’m super happy that we offer two different lines here that are curvy specific, that are geared toward showing off curves, hugging curves, and fitting curves properly, instead of putting a tent over a body which is what dresses for larger bodies used to be. There are strides that are being made in the industry, slowly, very painfully slowly.”

“The conversation we have with every bride is the same, ‘You’re going to see a number today that you typically haven’t seen. I don’t want you to worry about it, because what we’re worried about today is giving you the right fit, whatever that means, the number doesn’t matter. We just need to make sure that when you walk down the aisle you’re comfortable, supported, and that you feel good about yourself.’ We’ve taken that angle here, because the industry has not quite caught up. I think as shop owners we have to decide if we’re going to make this a part of the conversation. And if yes, decide how we are going to do so in such a way that is really positive and let people know that regardless of size, shape, color, gender, or religious affiliation that this is a safe, welcome space and that we can make this experience work for anyone.” she concluded.

With one little girl and another on the way, Claire is busy with motherhood as well as business. She jokes that many of her hobbies include coloring, doing puzzles, and going to gymnastics practice. Pre-Covid and in less busy times, she and her husband enjoy live music, travel, and biking. They also love eating out at Bleu Duck, Cameo, and the Redwood Room.

Claire is very grateful to find joy in her work, “I wish I had more fun hobbies to mention, but I really love doing what I do so much. It gives me such a perfect outlet for my creative needs. It’s really really fulfilling for me and I love it.”

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Claire’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Finery Bridal Chic by clicking the link below!

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Finery Bridal Chic

Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

Corrie Strommen 3/16/22 Corrie Strommen 3/16/22

"I'll Just Do My Own Thing." Coffee, World Travel, and Rochester City Ordinances with Abe Sauer

Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Abe Sauer, owner and founder of Old Abe Coffee Company, writer, and a Rochester entrepreneur since 2014, who shared his story, personal experience with opening a successful food business, and insights on the Rochester entrepreneurial landscape.

Many of us are used to the sight of coffee shop owner and meatless bahn mi connoisseur, Abe Sauer, peddling away on his bike, pulling his coffee cart downtown or to the farmer’s market. Or seeing him behind the counter of his brick and mortar, a charming little home turned mural covered coffee house and restaurant. While a coffee cart may be a bizarre and rare sight here, Abe, who lived for many years in China and New York, found it odd that Rochester, with its bustling downtown full of Mayo Clinic employees on the hunt for coffee and food, lacked any kind of vendor presence when he moved here with his wife and two children in 2014.

Abe was born and raised in Wisconsin on a dairy farm. He went to college at the University of Wisconsin Madison and early on knew that he and college were not a good fit. He joined a study abroad program in China and when the program ended and the rest of the class flew home, Abe chose to abandon his college pursuits and stay in China…for the next seven years.

“At that time, in the early 90s, China was in a period of opening and growing economically. I was young, nineteen or twenty, and just thought ‘why not?’ There was an embassy attached to the school I had been going to and they hired me since I spoke the language, was living locally, and knew the layout of the city really well. At that time, it was like the Wild West, which is cliche to say, but they would just give me work without asking for any qualifications, no one asked to see a degree. They would ask if I could do a job, I would say yes, and if I could follow through I could keep the job. So I would do all kinds of things for them. I also did networking and events as a personal side business.”

He continued, “I was living with friends in the cheapest possible cement apartment, so even though the level of failure was high, I could still make it in the city. It was a great place to be creative entrepreneurially with very low consequences.”

Photo provided by Abe Sauer, from his time in China.

After his time in China, Abe moved to New York and lived there for the next eight years. He initially worked as a secretary, using his meager salary to rent a tiny, “roach infested Queen’s apartment” and “live off of day old bagels.” During that time he decided to finish his liberal arts degree, enrolled in night school, and passionately pursued writing. He started writing for some magazines and after completing his degree, landed a couple of marketing positions, one of which led him to move to Minneapolis.

In Minneapolis, Abe met his wife, they married, had two children, and decided to head back to China. “She had never been there, I still had contacts and opportunities there, and we just decided to go for it. The kids went to school there and it was a crazy and fun couple of years.”

Upon returning to the states, his wife accepted a job at Mayo Clinic and he applied there as well. Despite years of marketing experience, he was not hired, he suspects because he did not have an MBA. Undeterred, Abe shrugged and thought “I guess I’ll just do my own thing.”

He continued writing and consulting. Some of you may be familiar with the Minnesota classic children’s book, Goodnight Loon. A little known fact is that Abe wrote back in 2012! Along with children’s literature, Abe wrote for publications such as Esquire, The Atlantic, Reuters and The St. Paul Almanac.

During this time, while walking around downtown in search of coffee and discovering lines out the door of a skyway Starbucks, Abe saw the clear lack of coffee shops to fuel the patient and Mayo Clinic employee population of downtown Rochester. Inspired by the vendors that were a constant part of his life both in China and New York and a personal love of good coffee, Abe decided to jump through some city ordinance hoops and avoid the high rental costs of downtown spaces to open a mobile coffee cart.

“I looked up the ordinances, and had to play with an allowance they had intended for flower and newspaper vendors. Food wasn’t allowed, so there was another hoop to jump through. But, you know, I’m pretty good at reading directions, so I figured out a way to make it work.”

“At first I was just giving coffee away.” Abe admitted, chuckling. “You could tell that all of these people staring at me, of course, would love a free cup of coffee, but in a very Minnesotan way, couldn’t get over the embarrassment of walking up to a guy in a bike pulled coffee cart and asking for free coffee. Which was such a change from my experiences in New York, where if someone was giving away something it would be gone in minutes. It was very interesting learning the habits of the consumers of Rochester, which are very different from what I was used to in New York or even Minneapolis. Rochester has a very unique consumer environment. It has so much money, but it spends it in ways that are not easy to predict.”

Something clicked in the community in 2014 and 2015. “You saw this explosion of more localized, unique ideas and a strong demand for that. Which has continued up to now.”

With time, Abe’s coffee cart would become a popular downtown staple. Shortly after opening it, Abe had made the switch to a mostly vegetarian and vegan diet and was doing a lot of cooking for himself. He observed that there were very few plant based food options in Rochester and decided to try selling some food on the cart as well. Sure enough, people liked it! As demand grew, and winter made outdoor vending an unpleasant prospect, Abe looked toward finding a permanent space for his business, The small house that would become Old Abe’s Coffee Company was found near Cooke Park, where he has since established a beloved local restaurant and hangout spot for the vegetarian and vegan foodies of Rochester (or anyone who likes dang yummy food and coffee).

Old Abe has recently adapted to adopt another local favorite, Drift Dough Doughnuts. “It was just a good fit. The owner’s heart was in his other business in Decorah and he was kind of a satellite owner and wanted to move on. I wanted to have more food options for morning business and they had already figured out some vegan, gluten free, and dairy free doughnut recipes. So we took on their baker. It’s been a good transition; we’ve been able to get really creative with doughnut flavors since they lend themselves so well to so many different iterations.”

This isn’t the only recent development, however, as Abe has also purchased a neighboring space and hopes to expand to provide overflow seating there, and- good news for dog lovers- build out a dog run between the two spaces! Fingers crossed all goes as planned!

A Rochester entrepreneur for many years now, Abe has some good insights about the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Rochester.

“If there’s one big problem I would point out, it would be that Rochester, as a city, has a tendency to invest in the one, big, expensive idea that is the ‘game changer’ in their minds, instead of investing in a ton of fast and dirty small ideas. I think that the latter are what people actually want. There’s very little risk to the city in investing in a bunch of fifty-thousand dollar ideas around town. There’s a ton of risk in investing in one twenty million dollar idea, and if that idea doesn’t work, there’s the inevitable feeling that you need to keep throwing money at it to keep it going instead of being really honest and admitting that it just didn’t work. So you’re throwing money at a dying idea, and money you invest in something that’s dying is money not being invested in something that is growing.”

“I joke about Rochester being like a treasury bill, it isn’t going to boom overnight, but it is the most secure investment you can make, because it just grows at this slow, reliable pace, like a municipal bond. The city is very consistent from a financial perspective, which is good, in many ways for our local economy. It does, however, tend to make people extremely risk averse, in my experience. Most people don’t move to Rochester because they are risk takers, people come here for the safety and reliability of the jobs they can find here. People want predictability and safety. Rochester has those things. I think that the risk averse nature, or more traditional nature of the city, in a bad way, sinks into the way the city governs itself. The city has many restrictive ordinances, which are harmful to entrepreneurs. If you come along and do something that Rochester has never seen before, it can be extremely hard to get people to see your vision.”

He continued, “On the other hand, many of the entrepreneurs who I know in the city have a support network either through their spouse or family that is grounded in one of the core businesses in Rochester. Mayo Clinic is the obvious one. A lot of people start these businesses with one person working a very reliable job and supporting them, giving them the entrepreneurial freedom to go start another venture. In this way, a safety net exists while you’re taking chances up front. Rochester’s economy allows for that. Because my wife worked at Mayo Clinic when I was first getting started, I didn’t have to bring home a paycheck. It may not have worked out if that option wasn’t available to me. At times when I was getting started, I was working eight hours a day and making forty-five dollars. I think it’s much more difficult for people without a financial support network to go out and take chances entrepreneurially.”

“In that sense it’s a great community to start a business in, because it has that safety net for entrepreneurs. But at the same time they face these extreme headwinds from ordinances. Which is a culture born out of that economic safety. When you have a bunch of medical professionals and IBM engineers in a town together, you aren’t going to get a risk taking town.” he concluded, laughing.

He advises aspiring Rochester entrepreneurs, in partial jest and seriousness, “Get a spouse with a stable job or live at home with your parents.” His core advice is to have a good perspective and attitude toward what you can live without and, though it may be uncomfortable for a time, adjust your life to pursue your idea. Tough it out.

While Abe admits that he doesn’t have a lot of free time, one of his favorite pastimes is swimming with his children. “Perversely, I also love reading city ordinances, agenda packets and things like that. Mostly because you start to see trends and patterns in them that predict the future of Rochester’s growth in a way, which I find super interesting. It’s also a hobby that I can do at home, not on my feet.”

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Abe’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Old Abe Coffee Company by clicking the link below!

Donate

Old Abe Coffee Company

Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.

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